As we all know, Doris Humphrey was a pioneer of modern dance and very influential in dance history. Doris was very significant in dance history because she moved away from the sentimentalism and romanticism of the modern dance world Denishawn created. Doris Humphrey’s creation of the Fall and Recovery technique was very new to the modern dance world in the 1930’s and is still used in studying movement today. During this era, we had ballet whose focus is to defy gravity. Doris, on the other hand, used her technique to move and work with gravity. She was interested in the apex of the continuum in the suspension of tension, unlike Graham who was more focused on the tension in moving. She was one of the first Americans to really analyze and notate Modern Dance’s movement. For example, she characterized movement patters as opposition, succession, and unison and movement characteristics as sharp accent, sustained flow, and rest. Not only did Doris teach these techniques but also codified them in her influential book, The Art of Making Dances. This book is a very large contribution to the art of dance. This was the first time in history that there was a notated, concrete, fully articulated choreographic method for modern dance makers. This book is still used read, and studied today by contemporary dancers.
It is so interesting to find out where Doris's inspiration for Fall and Recovery came from. While reading this, I thought about your solo yesterday and it is so clear what your intentions were and how they were executed in response to the Humphrey technique. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was definitely thinking of fall and recovery while choreographing it! I also used exercises from her book, "The Art of Making Dances" to generated movement vocabulary. I also really enjoyed your Morris solo, it was Mark to a tee!
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